Jessica Rodriguez has modeled empathy, courage, and compassion in her time as an ADA at Woodland Hills by creating an environment of trust and mutual respect among her team and peers. In the past few years, the Med/Surg staff has been challenged due to the COVID pandemic and has faced low morale and short staffing. Jessica has been instrumental in rebuilding the connection with the staff during those difficult times.

One of the nurses stated that Jessica is always visible and accessible to the staff by rounding on the unit with a positive attitude and always promoting professionalism in the work environment. "She is not afraid to be in the front line and address difficult situations as we feel our voices are heard when we come to ask for her support. I remembered a situation where we had a difficult patient and we felt that we needed to escalate the situation to Jessica at that time as we had exhausted all our options in managing the patient. The first answer we heard from Jessica was: “I will be right there," without even hearing the whole story of why we needed her support. The whole team felt that we have a leader that we can count on as she set the tone of the conversation during the interaction with the patient and the staff. We are thankful that she is part of our team in 4 East."